The Beat Of My Heart
by mysteryteenagelover
Summary: Peyton is about to leave for LA for the summer, and Lucas is staying in Tree Hill. Will they ever truly be together? Set near the end of Season 4. A Leyton fic. Sentimental, cliche, sweet. ONESHOT. Please R and R and enjoy. Cheers.


"We can't do this, Lucas." Peyton ran her hands through her curls in desperation, trying to lie to herself, to dispel the feelings that she had had for the past four months. She couldn't do this, she just couldn't.

"Peyton, what're you … hey." Lucas put a hand to her cheek as she looked down, a single tear sliding down her soft, perfect cheeks. She looked down, blonde hair cascading down her shoulders. He tilted his head and leant back a touch, trying to see into her eyes, to read her.

"I'm leaving. For LA. I've made my choice. I'm taking the internship. And we can't be together then." It was the hardest decision she had ever had to make. Leaving him, leaving Lucas. She still couldn't imagine her world without Lucas in it. She didn't know how she was going to get by, to go on. He was her resting place, the person she went to when she didn't know what else to do. The person she had kissed when she had thought she was going to die. The person who had helped her recover when she couldn't even step outside without panicking.

"Why can't we be together now?" She saw genuine concern in Lucas' eyes as he asked the question.

"Because I have to leave. Give me one good reason why we should – every time we touch, and every time we kiss, I'll know. I'll know that one day soon, it'll be over."

"But it doesn't have to be."

"Yes it does!" Peyton almost let herself be angry at him for trying to change her mind. She couldn't do this, and she knew what she had to do. She had to end it. Didn't she? She couldn't do this to herself, because if she did, it would make it that much harder for her to leave at the beginning of the summer. But if she so truly knew that that was right, why did she still want to touch Lucas, to have him hold her, to be close to him and to kiss him?

"Peyton, listen to me. Why can't you let yourself be happy? I love you, Peyton, and I want you. But I also want you to go, because that's your future. That's where you're meant to be. But I don't want to – I can't lose you. Not while I still have you." Lucas put his hand to her heart, which beat wildly above her left breast.

"It's .. it's not about me. Brooke, you and my art are the most important things to me in my life. The first two are coming with me. To New York. You're staying here. I can't _do_ it Lucas, I just –' She broke off as Lucas put a hand to the small of her back and found her mouth with his lips. Despite herself, Peyton found herself sinking into the kiss, her hands in his hair. But she tore her mouth away, putting her hands on his chest and pushing him away. He stumbled back a few steps.

Peyton knew that she couldn't think when he was standing so close, his breath touching her cheek and her neck and driving her crazy with longing and desire. She felt as emotionally close to a person as she ever had. All that was left was the physical closeness. Which was brought abruptly back to her mind as Lucas stepped back close to her.

His hands interlaced her fingers with his, kissing her and moving his fingers, his hand creeping onto her breast, earning a moan. He took the opportunity of her open mouth to slip his tongue in, tilting his head to one side, holding her waist with his other hand. His fingers teased her until she couldn't remember why she had to leave. But when his hands tugged up her shirt, and the rush of cool air hit her skin, it jolted her.

"No! Lucas – I can't. I can't have sex with you. Because if I do, it'll only make it that much harder for me to leave." And with that she pulled her shirt back down and ran out of his bedroom, and was halfway out his front door before she felt his hands on her waist. Tearing his hands away, she ran and Lucas dropped back, deciding to let her go.

--

"Go away!" Peyton cried in the general direction of her bedroom door. It swung open, and three strides took Lucas over to her bed, and he knelt beside it.

"Lucas, I –"

"You said one good reason. One good reason why we should." He paused, and traced her tears away with his fingers. Yet more fell, dropping onto his hand, and he brushed them all away before grasping her shoulders, helping her to sit up.

"I have a reason. I love you, Peyton, and I think I always have, and I know I always will. It's true that every time I touch you, you'll still have to go to New York. But that's ok."

"No. It's not ok. Luke –"

"It is. Because every time you realise you have to go, you'll also realise that when you get back, I'll be waiting for you. And that I'll visit you. And that even if you went to the end of the world and took half a lifetime to get back, I'd still wait for you. Because I love you."

"You'll – you'll wait for me?"

"You ever doubted it?"

"Luke –" And with that she put her hands on the side of his face, and kissed him, and he kissed her back, and put a hand to her chest, feeling her heart beat.

The kiss stood for everything, the day when she thought she'd lost her dad and he gone with her, the day in the library where she thought she was going to die, the day of the prom where he had held her and told her it was fine, and the day they won the basketball match and they'd kissed, and all the streamers had fallen into her hair and onto his face, and he'd held her and not cared that half of Tree Hill was watching. And all the days in between where they'd held each other and been together.

And they lay, together, on Peyton's bed, and he heard her heart beating and he knew that the heart beat for them. Lucas and Peyton, together, forever, at last.


End file.
